This article is about the original Doom games monster Cacodemon. For the monster in Doom 3, see Cacodemon (Doom 3).

Cacodemons are red monsters with large spherical bodies crowned with horns, that float slowly through the air. They have a single green eye over a large mouth which is persistently twisted into an evil grin showing a series of nasty teeth and a bluish interior.

Contents 1 Combat characteristics 2 Tactical analysis 3 Notes 4 Plush Cacodemons 4.1 Hissy 4.2 Pixel 4.3 Caco 4.4 Coquito 5 Data 6 Appearance statistics 7 Other games 7.1 Doom 64 7.2 Doom RPG 8 Sources 9 Notes

Combat characteristics Edit

They attack by spitting a ball of plasma or by biting with their gaping maw. The Cacodemon often seems to distance itself from the player when under attack, though the cause of this is that it is being pushed back by successful hits from its enemies.

Cacodemons emit a loud hissing sound when they first see the player or otherwise become active, and use the pain sound shared by most of the demonic monsters from Doom. When killed, they let out a gurgling moan and fall to the ground, splitting open like a burst pustule, spewing copious amounts of blue goo and intestines that flow forth, to reveal their bared brains while their sole eye pops out of its socket.

Tactical analysis Edit

Cacodemon attacks are relatively easy to dodge, and with sufficient space large numbers of Cacodemons can be fought while sustaining little or no injury. Because they are slow, and because their pain chance is high, they are fairly easy targets. The chainsaw can incapacitate them, and repeating weapons such as the chaingun or the plasma gun are very effective against them, as they are pushed away and are nearly unable to fight back. They are relatively easy to goad into attacking other monsters, but can occasionally be tricky in this respect if they are floating in a high position allowing most of their shots to go over other monsters in the player's area. Their slow floating speed can, however, increase a player's chances of luring them into another monster's firing line. When possible, the best monsters to lure a Cacodemon or multiple Cacodemons into the path of would be a Spiderdemon (Doom or Doom II), a Heavy weapon dude or an Arachnotron (Doom II). Each of those 3 monsters all have repeating weapons which can come in even more handy when multiple Cacodemons are present in a given area. A skilled player could use a shotgun, run in for close shots, and dodge any incoming attacks while reloading and retreating. Multiple Cacodemons can also be mowed down in fairly short order with the BFG 9000, in 1 to 4 shots depending upon how many a player is combating & how closely together they are bunched.

Because of their flight ability and versatility, it is not uncommon to see these flying out of unexpected angles once alerted.

Although the Cacodemon has a melee attack, it does not actively try to use this attack; it simply "happens" if the player is at point-blank range at the time the Cacodemon attempts to launch a projectile. (The Cacodemon's melee attack also does not have a sound effect associated with it.) This is presumably to prevent the enemy from abusing this attack while located at a greatly different elevation from the player (where the player would not be able to retaliate).

Notes Edit

• The name Cacodemon, which comes from the Greek κακοδαίμων (kakodaimon) usually meaning "evil spirit", a more precise name for what we generally know as demon (which ultimately comes from "god" or "spirit"), is in English a word that may be found in most comprehensive dictionaries.
• The monster's general visual design is similar to that of the Beholder, a similarly one-eyed classic Dungeons & Dragons monster (with eye stalks instead of horns). In addition, the Cacodemon was created from a cropping of a creature that appears on the cover of Manual of the Planes, a Dungeons & Dragons expansion book. The creature itself is known as an Astral Dreadnought, and was created by Jeff Easley for that book.
• The earliest known version of Doom to include Cacodemon graphics is the 0.5 alpha, released on May 22, 1993, and the earliest known appearance of the monster as an in-game adversary is in the press release version of Doom, released on October 4, 1993.
• Cacodemons are called pumpkins in the Doom novels, and the marine in the Doom comic refers to them as "big-mouthed floating thingies."

• Homestar Runner makes two references to Cacodemons. In Strong Bad E-Mail number 150, Strong Bad remarks that an interdimensional portal "looks like it could release some serious Cacodemons." In the Halloween 2007 cartoon, Pom Pom dresses as a Cacodemon.
• The Cacodemon is used as the Icon for the Xbox 360 Arcade version of Doom, specifically in the game library and on the Achievement screen. The sequel, Doom II, simply uses the title rather than a monster to represent the icon.
• Microsoft's Windows 95 port of Doom also uses a Cacodemon icon.
• The Cacodemon is also used as the icon for The Ultimate Doom on Steam.
• Hissy the Cacodemon (see below) serves as the Doom Wiki logo, along with a cartoonish version of the Doom logo.
• In a ZDoom-based source port, if the player is killed by a Cacodemon, one of two obituary messages will be displayed at the top of the screen depending on which attack the Cacodemon used to kill the player: "[player name] was bitten by a Cacodemon" or "[player name] was smitten by a Cacodemon" for the bite and lightning-ball attacks respectively.
• The Cacodemon is probably the one monster players of Doom remember the most^{[citation needed]}. This especially to players of Ultimate Doom (since its Lost Soul-belching cousin, Pain Elemental, wasn't introduced until Doom II). Attributed mostly due to the Cacodemon's ability to be placed in areas where other monsters would be highly ineffective, such as high ledges, cubby-holes & the like^{[citation needed]}. The very distinct red color & its frightening hiss made this monster a nightmare to approach or combat in a red-walled or dark room^{[citation needed]}.

Plush Cacodemons Edit

Hissy Edit

Circa 1997-98, amateur Doom level designer Jonas "Chrozoron" Feragen created Hissy, a plush Cacodemon which quickly became famous in the Doom community. Hissy can be found as a character in Skulltag, Cacodemon Squad, the secret level (WTF!) on MassMouth 2 and EarthBound Doom; the plush Cacodemon itself is on a "world tour." She has been in the hands of over a dozen community members in the past eight years.

Pixel Edit

Pixel is a plush-toy Cacodemon created in November 2004 by Doom enthusiast Hughe, in response to a challenge from a friend. Pixel was created to be as accurate in form as possible using five different materials, including all his horns, separate teeth, upper mouth and single eye. Pixel was created before Hughe had any knowledge of the plush Hissy, and was in no way made to compete with her. In fact, it is said that Pixel finds Hissy rather cute.

Hughe later made a second, named Sprite. Sprite was made of a couple different materials; and is believed to guard Hughe's desk at the Sony offices in London.

CacoEdit

Caco was created by the artist, Nathan Freda in 2012 during his senior year at Ringling College of Art & Design. Caco was made upon request from Freda's roommate who is an avid Doom enthusiast.

CoquitoEdit

As a present for his 25th birthday, Javier Saavedra and Agustín Ayape made a plush Cacodemon for their Doom enthusiast friend: Nicolás "Pititisch" Chazarreta. They are all from Comodoro Rivadavia, Chubut, Argentina. It was made in about 1 week and used textile wadding (cotton), plush, felt (horns and teeth) and cloth (black and red). The name "Coquito" comes from an Spanish contraction "little Coco" (or little Caco).

Data Edit

Attributes ID # 3005 (decimal), BBD (hex) Hit points 400 Speed 8 map units per frame (93.3333 map units per second) Width 62 Height 56 Reaction time 8 Pain chance 128 (50%) Pain time 6 tics Mass 400 Bits 4211206 Bits list 1: Obstacle 2: Shootable 9: No Gravity 14: Floating 22: Affects Kill %

Sprites & sounds Sprite name HEAD Alert sound DSCACSIT Action sound DSDMACT Pain sound DSDMPAIN Death sound DSCACDTH

Melee attack Damage 10-60 Sound none Ranged attack Type Projectile Speed 10 map units per tic (350 map units per second) Damage 5-40 Width 12 Height 8 Sprite name BAL2 Sound DSFIRSHT (firing) DSFIRXPL (impact)

Bites needed to kill1	Mean	Standard deviation	Min	Max
Player (100% health, no armor)	3.31	0.82	2	6
Player (100% health, security armor)	4.74	0.97	3	8
Player (200% health, combat armor)	11.86	1.30	9	15
Barrel	1.15	0.36	1	2
Zombieman	1.15	0.36	1	2
Shotgun guy	1.34	0.51	1	3
Wolfenstein SS	1.87	0.74	1	4
Imp	2.16	0.74	1	5
Heavy weapon dude	2.50	0.65	2	5
Lost soul	3.31	0.82	2	6
Commander Keen	3.31	0.82	2	6
Demon	4.74	0.97	3	8
Spectre	4.74	0.97	3	8
Romero's head2	7.65	1.14	5	11
Revenant	9.04	1.21	6	12
Cacodemon	11.86	1.30	9	15
Pain elemental	11.86	1.30	9	15
Hell knight	14.73	1.34	12	18
Arachnotron	14.73	1.34	12	18
Mancubus	17.68	1.44	15	22
Arch-vile	20.56	1.58	17	25
Baron of hell	29.15	1.81	25	34
Spiderdemon	86.67	1.96	81	92
Cyberdemon	115.34	1.37	112	119

Shots needed to kill	Mean	Standard deviation	Min	Max
Player (100% health, no armor)	5.02	1.09	3	8
Player (100% health, security armor)	7.16	1.23	5	10
Player (200% health, combat armor)	17.99	1.97	13	22
Barrel	1.44	0.60	1	4
Zombieman	1.44	0.60	1	4
Shotgun guy	1.80	0.75	1	4
Wolfenstein SS	2.75	0.78	2	5
Imp	3.16	0.86	2	6
Heavy weapon dude	3.61	0.91	2	6
Lost soul	5.02	1.09	3	8
Commander Keen	5.02	1.09	3	8
Demon	7.22	1.29	5	10
Spectre	7.22	1.29	5	10
Romero's head2	11.68	1.70	8	16
Revenant	13.90	1.83	9	18
Cacodemon3
Pain elemental	18.27	2.04	13	22
Hell knight	22.80	2.24	17	28
Arachnotron	22.80	2.24	17	28
Mancubus	27.28	2.45	21	33
Arch-vile	31.76	2.58	25	37
Baron of hell	45.16	3.09	36	52
Spiderdemon	134.41	2.61	128	140
Cyberdemon	179.12	2.55	173	184

1. These tables assume that all calls to P_Random for damage, pain chance, blood splats, impact animations, and backfire checks are consecutive. In real play, this is never the case: counterattacks and AI pathfinding must be handled, and of course the map may contain additional moving monsters and other randomized phenomena (such as flickering lights). Any resulting errors are probably toward the single-shot average, as they introduce noise into the correlation between the indices of "consecutive" calls.
2. Assumes that direct hits are possible, which does not occur in any stock map.
3. Hardcoded exception to infighting negates damage (excepting indirect damage caused by exploding barrels).

Appearance statistics Edit

In classic Doom, the Cacodemon is first encountered on these maps:

Game	ITYTD and HNTR	HMP	UV and NM
The Ultimate Doom	E2M3: Refinery	E2M1: Deimos Anomaly	E2M1: Deimos Anomaly
Doom II	MAP05: The Waste Tunnels	MAP05: The Waste Tunnels	MAP05: The Waste Tunnels
TNT: Evilution	MAP02: Human BBQ	MAP02: Human BBQ	MAP02: Human BBQ
Plutonia	MAP02: Well of Souls	MAP01: Congo	MAP01: Congo

The IWADs contain the following numbers of Cacodemons:

Game	ITYTD and HNTR	HMP	UV and NM
The Ultimate Doom	62	144	193
Doom II	44	121	188
TNT: Evilution	43	76	99
Plutonia	95	108	123

Other games Edit

Doom 64 Edit

In Doom 64 the Cacodemon first appears in MAP03: Main Engineering. It underwent a major design change, becoming brown, with a single yellow-green eye, and gaining two arms with broken chains attached, and a rather terrifying face. Instead of a screech it lets out a loud, frightening hiss when spotting the player, and the body of the monster has animation frames (mostly in the way it swings its arms when in flight), whereas the original Cacodemon floated in a motionless manner. It resembles Doom II's original pain elemental. The nightmare Cacodemon variation, introduced in the Doom 64 TC, remained red.

Doom RPG Edit

The Cacodemon appears in Doom RPG as a class of monster. There are three variations, identified by color:

• Malwrath (gold body, red eye, red throat)
• Cacodemon (normal colors)
• Wretched (blue body, olive green eye, bright red throat)

Cacodemons attack three times consecutively and are most weak against axe attacks and plasma blasts.

Sources Edit

• This article incorporates text from the open-content Wikipedia online encyclopedia article Cacodemon.

Notes Edit

Monsters from Doom and Doom II
Arachnotron | Arch-Vile | Baron of Hell | Cacodemon | Commander Keen | Cyberdemon | Demon | Heavy Weapon Dude | Hell Knight | Imp | Lost Soul | Mancubus | Pain Elemental | Revenant | Shotgun Guy | Spectre | Spider Mastermind | Zombieman | Wolfenstein SS | Final Boss

Monsters from Doom 64
Arachnotron | Baron of Hell | Cacodemon | Cyberdemon | Demon | Hell Knight | Imp |Lost Soul | Mancubus | Nightmare Imp | Pain Elemental | Shotgun Guy | Spectre | Zombieman | Mother Demon

Monsters from the Sony PlayStation version of Doom
Arachnotron | Baron of Hell | Cacodemon | Cyberdemon | Demon | Heavy Weapon Dude | Hell Knight | Imp | Lost Soul | Mancubus | Nightmare Spectre | Pain Elemental | Revenant | Shotgun Guy | Spectre | Spider Mastermind | Zombieman